Old Friends and Drunk Ones
by EnglandBabe1997
Summary: Post The Angels Take Manhattan. The Doctor visits an old friend after Manhattan. Please read and review xx


**This idea popped into my head watched The Angels Take Manhattan and I just had to write it xx Hints of Jack/Ianto slash and Doctor/Amy friendship xx **

It was odd. He was just starting to feel lucky - like the universe was finally granting him the favours he owed, letting him keep his companions and not lose them.

He'd lost Rose when she'd promised him forever.

He'd lost Donna to his own mind.

Martha and Mickey were living their own life - on the slow path.

Sarah Jane was lost to him. Forever.

But he's spent two hundred years with Amy and Rory, on and off. They were always there when he needed them, and always up for the adventure.

And now they weren't. Neither of them would ever be able to again.

And he didn't know who he could talk to about that. He'd lost everyone- Sarah, Martha, Donna, Rose. Once upon a time he could've talked to any of those four. He couldn't even talk to his own wife. As River Song she never let him see her weaknesses and he couldn't bring himself to do anything but the same. As Melody Pond she was _their_ daughter. There was no way he could win.

With that in mind, he set off for the one place where someone he knew would understand was likely to be.

oOo

It was cold and dark when he arrived, shadows looming and giving the area the feel of a more dangerous Earth estate. He could smell smoke - even in this time, so far into the future, smoking was popular. Only now they had a cure for cancer so it was much less dangerous.

Groups of men huddled in corners, laughing raucously and throwing dice. The Doctor had never approved of gambling. With that in mind, he headed towards the most brightly lit and respectable looking bar open. Dirt was spread only thinly on the floor and the odd smell of goats lingered in the air. Compared with the rest of this planet, it was positively sparkling.

There in the corner, hidden in the darkness, was Captain Jack Harkness.

He was surround by empty glasses which, even as he watched, a barmaid in a low-cut dress came by to collect. The Doctor couldn't decide whether Jack had managed the drinks by himself, or had been part of a prior group.

The Doctor walked up with purpose and sat down, not even ordering a drink.

Jack looked him over lecherously. "Hello. Who might you be?" The Doctor could hear the sadness concealed in his old friend's voice.

The Doctor took a heavy breath, steeling himself for the upcoming conversation. "Oh, don't start."

Jack gave a drunken start. "Doctor?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing here?" he slurred. The Doctor was surprised. Not even a comment on his looks - normal he would've gotten one by now, especially from Jack.

"Visiting an old friend?"

"You never do that. Not even when we need you."

"I am sorry." The Doctor said quietly. He couldn't say anything other than that.

"My lover died. And then my grandson. My daughter hates me - not that she didn't before. She knows how dangerous it can be to be close to men like us," Jack said bitterly.

"I'm sorry."

"I know. And I think that's part of why I hate you. It would be so much easier to hate you in peace if I knew you didn't care at all."

"How do you cope?"

"I drink. I flirt."

"You do both of those already. When the people you love die, what do you do?"

Jack eyed him suspiciously. "I try to block it out. Forget it. Pretend it never happened - or that they never existed. But I won't do that to _him_. I promised. Not either of them."

The Doctor sat silently.

"You look like a twelve year old." And thee it was. "I feel like I should be arrested just for looking at you. And what's with the bow-tie?"

"Bow-tie's are cool," he said, his voice breaking only a little. Silence fell for a moment.

"Who did you lose?"

"My best friends."

"What were their names?"

"The Ponds - Amelia and Rory ... well strictly speaking its Amy and Rory Williams. The Boy and Girl Who Waited."

"Who waited?"

"Amelia waited twelve years for me. And then another two."

"Did you get your dates wrong again?"

He laughed thickly. "It was the TARDIS's fault. Not mine."

"And do you or do you not drive the TARDIS?"

The Doctor refused to answer. "I took her away the night before her wedding."

"You're getting even worse with dates."

"I didn't know she was getting married," he insisted.

"Of course you didn't."

The Doctor ignored this too. "Eventually I picked Rory up as well. Took them to Venice for a date. Ended up getting chased by vampires from outer space," he reminisced. This was what he was here for. Jack rarely judged and understood almost better that the Doctor did. After all, Jack was even older than the Doctor now.

"Nothing's ever boring with you."

"Saved the universe a few times. Opened the Pandorica. Amy got trapped inside it, half-dead, and Rory guarded it for two thousand years. They loved each other so much. And that's why they died." Jack didn't want to ask. But the Doctor needed to say it. "The Weeping Angels. They sent Rory back once but Amy and Rory jumped off the roof to cause a paradox. We landed back in 2012. And one Angel survived. _One_. And it sent Rory back again. I couldn't do anything then. And Amy loved him so much. She refused to leave without him. So she let the Angel touch her. Rory died aged 82, Amelia at 87. They both lived long happy lives and I broke my promise to Brian."

Jack wasn't sure whether he should ask who Brian was. The Doctor, however, saw his slight confusion. "Brian is Rory's father."

Jack attempted to distract the distraught Time Lord. "You are getting domestic aren't you? Imagine what Big Ears would've said - you travelling with a married couple and their parents."

"Oi," The Doctor said, seeing the distraction for what it was, "Jackie travelled with me once. And anyway, in this body I seem to be incredibly domestic."

"Travelling with the in-laws?"

"Actually I was travelling with my in-laws as well."

Jack gaped, blaming what he was hearing on the alcohol he'd drunk. "What?"

"I'm married to Amy and Rory's daughter."

"What's her name?"

"Melody Pond. But you might know her as River Song." He wished he had a camera to catch the look on Jack's face as he choked. As it was, he had prime viewing, and he laughed, his heart lightening for the first time since Manhattan.

"Yes I've heard of River Song."

"I thought you might've. She runs in your kinds of circles."

"I feel offended."

"Don't be. It's true."

Silence fell again.

"It gets better."

"I know it does. I've seen it hundreds of times."

"Not as many as I have," Jack said, with hundreds of years.

"And I'm sorry for that old friend."

"I know."

The Doctor gave Jack one last smile before reaching over and draining his drink for him. "Oi!"

"Goodbye Jack."

"Goodbye Doctor."

"I'll see you again."

"I hope so. I know you lose track of the years."

"I will do. Goodbye."

With that, the Doctor rose swiftly from the chair and exited the pub, ignoring all of the looks on his way out. What was a guy in tweed and a bow-tie doing in a place like this?


End file.
